This invention is in the field of line hauling and coiling devices, particularly for long fishing lines having spaced hooks thereon.
It is common in fishing for certain types of fish to employ long lines of, for example, 1,800 feet long with hook lines attached thereto and known as gangions, about 18 to 26 feet apart. Each of the gangions has a hook at its end. The hooks are baited and the lines let out in the water with suitable anchoring and/or float means at the ends and left in such position for a length of time to attract and catch fish. On many fishing vessels from 40 to 50 units are used per day and setting such lines in the water and hauling the same aboard present some problems and require much labor.
It has been proposed to employ a power driven grooved wheel arrangement, known as a gurdy, to haul the line aboard a vessel over suitable guide rollers mounted on the gunwale. As the lines come aboard, any fish thereon are manually removed and as the line leaves the gurdy, it is usually manually coiled and each hook must be provided with new bait. As is obvious, such manual manipulation is susceptible of causing the lines to become tangled, thus requiring more time and labor to effect handling the lines and conditioning them for redeployment in the water.
Previous attempts have been made to alleviate the foregoing problems by effecting coiling of the lines on a reel. Such reels have usually been provided with radial spokes to separate the gangions and render the hooks thereon more readily accessible but such devices have not proven entirely satisfactory. Some such prior devices have also had means for automatically baiting the hooks. Examples of such prior proposals are shown in the patents to Tison 3,626,630, 3,841,011 and 3,903,632.